Stressed-induced senescence is nowadays a major problem from agro-economic point of view and endangers food security, worldwide. Only few types of compounds providing antisenescent and/or antioxidant properties are known, many of them are showing also undesirable side effects, such as inhibition of root growth (purine-based compounds such as 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), zeatin), etc. Therefore, provision of new classes of substances with strong antistress properties, not showing these undesirable side effects, is needed.
It is an object of this invention to provide urea derivatives having improved selectivity and efficiency index in the inhibition of plant senescence and stress-induced symptoms, without undesirable inhibitory effects to root development.